The founders of Rocketlane look back at their journey from friends to cofounders to colleagues to cofounder again, and share lessons learned along the way.

The Industrial Revolution - hell of a throwback, I know - was probably the turning point for the thing we know of as 'work'. Everything about the idea of work changed the moment once we discovered machines and automation. With technology came demand, and to generate supply and maximise profit, factory owners needed to scale up production with minimal resources. Zooming out, how much have we progressed?

I’d say any new data point in your head that comes about as a result of a new experience, interaction or piece of content you consume - which might be of use later - is a dot. A practical way of thinking about it: What all topics are you a little more qualified to talk about after doing or experiencing something? Some will be obvious, some less so but equally useful.

The adventures of the AVP - Autistic Vice President- It’s lonelier at the top.

“Marriage means adjustment”, advised well-meaning relatives and friends. What they did not clarify was that most often, the adjustments and compromises were expected from the bride.

Ask anyone on the internet (and we did), what it means to be productive, and you’ll largely hear the same chorus — accomplishing tasks, meeting deadlines, and doing the work to get there. However, we all know that’s not the whole truth. 

Despite the many modern revolutions and innovations, gender still has a huge influence on how we all live our lives. Homes, schools, colleges and workspaces continue to be a source of disruption for women’s individuality and identity. While it is true that these environments are a reflection of our socio-cultural and political contexts, it is particularly concerning when gender discrimination and stereotyping manifest in multifaceted ways, with sexist labelling constituting a significant facet.

A social media influencer's vulnerable account of what lies behind the scenes.

From website slogans to interview mantras, values are everywhere. They are woven into the fabric of onboarding programs as new recruits take their first steps into the organisation. They are repeated ad nauseum in meetings and in townhalls. They permeate our work lives, making their way into recruitment, assessments, performance evaluations and recognition programs. Have you found yourself drowning in a sea of words splashed across the “who we are” section of the company website? Have you seen or heard of these words and phrases more times than you have had coffee today?! Painting company values on the walls certainly makes for great social media posts, but what are the tangible implications of values in our everyday work?

This is not the gig economy, where independent workers join platforms to compete with each other for customers who pay by task. With a wealth of skills and experience to rely on, these CXOs start unbundling their career, deliberately, with the ultimate goal to maximize autonomy, flexibility, income, career satisfaction and personal growth.

The toxic influence of casteism tends to begin right from the initial step of recruitment, where individuals are evaluated, screened based on the surnames on their resume. The candidates are evaluated not solely on their qualifications, abilities or years of experience but also on their caste affiliations. These pre-screening techniques based on caste are not explicit or done consciously, but these are veiled in implicit biases and are part of systemic caste discrimination.

Narayan Murthy’s comments have stirred the nation. It is worth evaluating where we stand on this because India and Bharat are at a critical juncture. Although it was misinterpreted and blown out of proportion, it sparked a debate and that is great.

You may have heard of quiet quitting, but have you heard of quiet hiring? It is a new term for a practice that has been around for years. Joy Pittman, creator of HR for the Culture - an HR Outsource & Staffing Firm for black women-owned businesses, defines it as follows. "Quiet Hiring is when companies expand people’s jobs, not their pay."

I’ve thought about what “success” means to me at various points in my life and the only thing I’m sure about, is that there is no one, easy-to-fit-in-a-box answer. My definition has changed and evolved over various points in my life and the more I speak with people about this casually thrown about, loaded word, the more I realise that this is true for a lot of people.

While many multinational companies, in the technology and consulting sectors engage their alumni very well through structured programmes and well-defined strategies, ‘out of sight is out of mind’ is a reality for most workplaces.

This is in the scenario of me quitting the startup (Buidler’s Tribe) that I built from zero to $40 million in valuation for the last two years. Before that, I was part of the WazirX marketing team where we grew our community from 50,000 users to 1 million users. Before that I had a hostel for artists in a quiet little Goan town. And a backpackers' hostel prior. About nine years ago, I was building a profitable SaaS product and a software services company that was making good money with labour arbitrage.

It is no doubt that in anything we do, personally inclined interests are inevitable to wake up with an earnest mind. If you have been sitting on the edge about a creative venture you want to pursue, why not just start it?

My resume has always been a source of pride for me. My biggest accomplishment as a woman in STEM lies in the fact that I have remained in the workforce despite a series of changes that involved marriage, motherhood and moving countries, some of which happened more than once. Yet, now as I look at my CV, I feel a bit conflicted. My educational credentials are stellar and my work experience extends across companies, geographies and cultures, but explicitly drawing attention to my age, the least favourable of my attributes, in today’s competitive work environment, doesn’t seem like a good idea.

Monica Pillai, Heads People Operations at Obvious. She has had a ringside seat watching corporate India evolve for over 20 years. In this piece she reflects how Millennials and GenZs have impacted the workplace and added deep nuance to multiple conversations, in their own ways.

My own involvement with this sector has been very illuminating. Before joining my current full-time stint at Rang De, I have been consulting for NGOs in the impact sector over the last three years. For me, work in the impact sector has been all heart. You push through the challenges because you can see the direct impact of the work.

The term “self-expression” is commonly understood as the ways in which we physically express our inner selves and communicate our individuality to the outside world. Self-expression is a basic human right, but in our workplaces, it still remains a privilege. According to a survey conducted by Be Yourself At Work, only 16% of the global workforce feels like their authentic selves while at work. This suggests that, for the sake of employment, 84% of working professionals have to hide parts of themselves. For a major part of their adult lives, they are forced to fit into moulds of people they simply do not identify with. 

Ria Shroff Desai tell us how interviews and hiring are a matchmaking process - if done right, can be a win-win for both, the candidate and the company. Ria came to the world of Indian startups and venture capital with stopovers across the US, Latin America, nonprofits and SMBs. She's passionate about (re)building great workplaces and breaking the mould when it comes to harnessing the power of people and culture for business.

Who among us hasn’t thought of starting our own café? Twitter user @_waabi_saabi_, who writes on food & culture, tells us why so many of us share this dream. She also speaks to her F&B friends who've made the leap from the corporate to the culinary world. They talk about their motivations, challenges, and share tips.

Finding your Zone of Genius is a pilgrimage, which means there will be many mountains to climb and U-turns to take. But patience pays off, and so does a steady trust that by taking small steps each day, you will eventually assume agency and captaincy over the life you want to live. One of the greatest accomplishments in life is to firmly believe that the work we do is both personally fulfilling and beneficial for the world around us. And that conviction is a true triumph of human existence!

Building confidence in yourself as a professional takes time and the transition from being a young naive student, to a working adult will be difficult but we’re not alone in that journey. Dealing with self-doubt will always be a work in progress, but there are people around, who you can always rely on and I think we tend to forget that.

Or maybe you’re thinking: ‘what the hell are microaggressions?’ Microaggressions are subtle but harmful forms of discrimination that are often experienced by marginalised individuals in the workplace, on the basis of their identity.

Tough career decisions are not as simple as a one-size-fits-all framework where the only rule is hustling. Career decisions are often a function of privilege, and it obviously takes a level of self-awareness to realise that. Something that a one-size-fits-all always misses.

Someone suggested I write my first piece for Humanise about how women can prepare before joining a new workplace to ensure that their gender does not affect their experience. Here is why this is not that piece. And why I will probably never write that piece.

It is hard to distinguish between a human and a machine. Humans come with plugins that can capture their memories and dreams and implants that monitor their health and imagination. Humans can work from anywhere and since they are their own workplace, they can also work from Mars, which they mostly do. In 2050, humanising the workplace is a redundant concept. Humanising is almost derogatory. The preference is to be quasi-humanoid and even workplace policies no longer look the same.

I choose to be anonymous on Twitter. Often, this perplexes people. Don’t I know that there are several pros to putting a name to a face on Twitter? Having a personal brand on Twitter is a serendipity vehicle. Despite the pros, in this post, I highlight 5 reasons why I choose to stay anonymous as a professional.

Psychologists use the term “enmeshment” to describe a situation where the boundaries between people become blurred, and individual identities lose importance. Enmeshment prevents the development of a stable, independent sense of self. We are a generation enmeshed with our careers.

Four decades ago, American Sociologist Arlie Russel Hochschild coined and defined the term ‘emotional labour’ in her award-winning book, ‘The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling’, as the act of having to regulate or manage one’s emotions to fulfil a professional purpose. Hochschild argued that a third of American men and half of American women held jobs that involved emotional management to serve a commercial purpose.

Divorce and infertility are just two examples of a larger phenomenon called ‘invisible grief’, whereby a person grieves the loss of a future scenario they dreamt of. While this kind of grief doesn’t fall into the traditional grief that comes with mourning the death of a loved one, it may be even harder to navigate, because it is often isolating and not acknowledged by others.

More than ever, men are keen to contribute at work and at home, especially after having seen from close quarters the burden of a double-shift on their partners during the pandemic. The needs of the modern dad have evolved, but the support he receives hasn’t.

A lot of problems plague those who lie beyond the binary or struggle with gender norms. This article explores what lies beyond the binary, and how workplaces can increase awareness and create avenues for seamless inclusion.

Women doing ‘office housework’ disproportionately, happens because of a combination of ingrained gender-stereotypical roles assigned to them in workplaces and the fact that women also volunteer for them.

Gen Z isn’t hesitant to quit a job that gives them no satisfaction or a feeling of self worth. Yep, that’s all it takes.

I will confess I love clothes. But what I like better is comfortable clothes.

Here are a few suggestions on team analogies that work best.